Modi loses libel case, to cough up £90,000 to Cairns

Lalit Modi's cup of woes seems to be overflowing as the axed IPL commissioner on Monday lost a libel case to former New Zealand cricketer Chris Cairns and will have to pay 90,000 pounds (app Rs 73 lakhs) in damages to the all-rounder. What had happened...

Lalit Modi's cup of woes seems to be overflowing as the axed IPL commissioner on Monday lost a libel case to former New Zealand cricketer Chris Cairns and will have to pay 90,000 pounds (app Rs 73 lakhs) in damages to the all-rounder.

Neither party was present when the verdict - which is open to appeal - was announced in the high court.

Modi had accused Cairns of being involved in match-fixing during the rebel Indian Cricket League in 2008.

The embattled administrator will now have to cough up a part of the damages within the next 28 days and has until April 20 to file an appeal.

"Your client is a man of some means, you'll need to persuade me on a stay," the court said when Modi's lawyer asked for a stay on damages.

Cairns was captain of the Chandigarh Lions in the Indian Cricket League but his contract was terminated in October 2008, during the third edition of the tournament. The official reason given was that Cairns had breached the terms of his contract by failing to disclose an ankle injury.

In his capacity as IPL commissioner at that point, Modi had made these allegations on Twitter in 2010 while justifying the decision to keep Cairns out of the league.

Cairns, 41, then sued Modi, stating that "the claim was untrue and therefore libellous, and had damaged his reputation."

After hearing the arguments from both sides in a nine-day trial, Justice David Bean of the London High Court ruled in favour of Cairns.

Modi's legal team told the court that Cairns was corrupt but the Kiwi insisted his ICL dismissal was due to an ankle injury which he did not declare.

Cairns said the match-fixing allegation put a strain on his marriage as well.

"It had a profound effect on my personal and private life," Cairns told the court.

In his four-hour closing summary, Cairns' lawyer Andrew Caldecott QC had stated that his client had been made "a scapegoat of convenience".